Asus has lately concentrating on Indian market where the global launches are frequently held in India. Asus has come up with Zenfone Zoom to target photography enthusiasts. As it is a Camera-Centric smartphone, we will be concentrating more on camera.
Display
Asus Zenfone Zoom Sports 5.5 Inch 1080P Full HD display with Gorilla Glass 4 on top. The smartphone is priced at Rs 37999, at this price 2k display could have been better. But still the 1080P display does the job well where the viewing angles are quite good. The basic advantage of 1080P display over the 2k display is the battery consumption.
Camera
Asus Zenfone Zoom flaunts 13 Megapixel rear camera which has world’s thinnest optical zoom Lens (Hoya Lens). The rear camera supports 3X optical Zoom, dual tone flash, laser autofocus and Pixel master 2.0. According to the company, it is the “Most Advanced Photography Smartphone”. Is it the best? Let’s find out.
Rear Camera
The 13-megapixel rear camera performs well in most situations. The detailing you get in natural light is just amazing. The 3X optical zoom is quite good, the color representation even after using 3X optical zoom is worth noticing. I really like the HDR mode, the images are sharp and the detailing is just brilliant. The phone has camera shutter button which helps you to capture photos instantly. The volume buttons can be used to zoom-in and zoom out and has led button to change the camera mode to video mode and vice versa. Low light camera mode does help to capture snappy images during low light conditions. The macro shots came out pretty well where the focusing was spot on 8/10 times. The video quality is good but not outstanding. The rear camera can record Full HD videos and at slow motion 720P is what you get.
The phone has camera shutter button which helps you to capture photos instantly. The volume buttons can be used to zoom-in and zoom out and has led button to change the camera mode to video mode and vice versa. Low light camera mode does help to capture snappy images during low light conditions. The video quality is good but not outstanding. The rear camera can record Full HD videos and at slow motion 720P is what you get.
Front Camera
The Zenfone Zoom offers a 5 Megapixel selfie camera which has 10 different kinds of Modes. The front camera can record slow motion videos and has time-lapse functionality. The beautification mode is good but looks unnatural. Overall the front camera does the job well in most condition. Even in low light, the selfies were crispy.
Design
Asus Zenfone Zoom is one of the best-looking smartphones available in the market. The Circular lens on the back looks Eye Candy. The back panel is removable and can be replaced with other covers available in the market. The front part looks traditional Zenfone smartphone. Although it looks bulky but feels solid in the hand. The smartphone has a metal frame which gives a premium look. There are Volume rockers, a power button and a camera shutter butter. The loudspeaker is located at the bottom on the back. The built quality is very good which is the trademark of Asus.
The smartphone has a metal frame which gives a premium look. There are Volume rockers, a power button, and a camera shutter butter. The loudspeaker is located at the bottom on the back. The build quality is very good which is the trademark of Asus.
Performance
Like other Zenfones, the Zenfone Zoom performs like a butter. It is powered by 2.5 GHz Intel Atom Z3590 quad-core processor with Power G6430 GPU. The chipset gets the power from a 4 GB of RAM. The performance on this device is smooth which is optimized well. It is heaven for multitaskers and has negligible lag. The popular benchmark app AnTuTu has given it a score of 63769. The actual performance is way better than numbers suggest.
Gaming
Asus Zenfone Zoom can handle almost any game which is thrown at it. Played Asphalt 8 in high graphics mode and did well without any frame drops.
Storage and OS
The smartphone runs on Android Lollipop 5.1 with ZenUI flavour on top. Although it is not the latest Android Version but it may receive Marshmallow update in coming months. The Zenfone Zoom packs in a 128 GB of internal storage. Additionally, you can expand external storage up to 64 GB. The apps can be installed on the external storage.
Battery
The Asus device comes with a 3000 mAh battery. The battery performance is decent but not outstanding. It has Power saving mode which does help to improve battery life. On heavy usage, you can expect around 4 hours of usage on a single charge. Within 40 minutes, you can charge from 0-60%. So the initial charging is speedy but it takes around 2 hours to get fully charged.
Other key features are 4G, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC. The call quality is clear and had no issues with it. It is a single sim device which is unusual for Zenfone smartphone.
Pros:
- Excellent 13 MP rear camera
- Performance is top notch
- Premium design
- Solid build quality
Cons:
- Average Battery
- It is expensive
- No Fingerprint sensor
Conclusion: Asus Zenfone Zoom is a very good smartphone but it is only meant Photography Enthusiasts. The phone has an excellent camera which has DSLR-like manual modes. If you are looking for a good camera phone then you can opt for Zenfone Zoom. Otherwise, if the camera is not your priority then you can opt for other phones which are way cheaper than Zoom( You can consider Zenfone 2 Deluxe, check the review here ). Asus Zenfone Zoom is available exclusively on Flipkart for Rs 37999.
